For veteran Kremlinologists, Wednesday’s struggle to elect a new speaker of the City Council recalled the glorious days of the Soviet Union.

“The fight between Melissa Mark-Viverito and Dan Garodnick to succeed Christine Quinn was like the battle between the Stalinists and the Trotskyites for the legacy of Lenin,” according to one cynic.

“And who won is irrelevant — they are all card-carrying lefties and the politburo remains intact.”

The only drama was the fearful expressions on the faces of the losers who backed Garodnick. Maria del Carmen Arroyo, the scandal-scarred councilwoman from the South Bronx, shed tears when it became apparent that Garodnick had fallen short.

“Arroyo might not be trucked off to the gulag, but Mark-Viverito will see she spends a long winter in Siberia,” laughed my source.